Behavioral

From Humanistic

Racing Psychodynamic

Horses to Cognitive

Seeing the
Elephant
Behavioral

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.

James Madison University
 Unified Approaches are
Increasing in Numbers
 Seymour Epstein
“Integration of the Cognitive and the Psychodynamic
Unconscious”
 Erica Moses & David Barlow
“A New Unified Treatment Approach for Emotional Disorders
Based on Emotion Science”
 Dan McAdams“A New Big Five”
 Jeffery Magnavita’s Unified Psychotherapy
 Jack Mayer’s General Systems approach to Personality
 Sternberg’s Unified Psychology
 What Is the Tree of Knowledge
System?
The Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System is a new approach
to the theoretical unification of psychology in particular
and the sciences more generally. The outline of the ToK
System was published in Review of General Psychology in
2003, and in that article, the metatheoretical lens provided
by the system was used to unite Skinner and Freud. The
focus was on these two luminaries because when one
simultaneously considers their influence and the
divergence of their theoretical positions, it is readily
arguable that they represent the two most difficult positions
to integrate.
The Justification for the Need for More
Integrated Scientific Knowledge Is
Offered by Oliver Reiser in 1958
In this time of divisive tendencies within and
between the nations, races, religions, sciences and
humanities, synthesis must become the great magnet
which orients us all…[Yet] scientists have not done
what is possible toward integrating bodies of
knowledge created by science into a unified
interpretation of man, his place in nature, and his
potentialities for creating the good society. Instead,
they are entombing us in dark and meaningless
catacombs of learning. (Reiser, 1958, p. 2-3).
 Gallup Poll on Question of
Creation for American Public
50
45
40
35
30 God Created Man 10000 ya
25 God Created Man Mil YA
20
Man Evolved Naturally
15
10
5
0
2006
Building the ToK
System
Humans split off from their
nearest relatives ~5 MYA,
evolving into a whole different
dimension of complexity
Science emerges several
hundred years ago, and
functions to map the
evolution of complexity
 Three Other Ideas That
Complete the ToK System
 Behavioral Investment Theory
 The Influence Matrix
 The Justification Hypothesis
The first theory that is “missing” is called:

Behavioral Investment
Theory

A Theory of the Evolution of Mind

 What is Behavioral Investment
Theory?
BIT is the idea that the nervous system is a
computational control system that computes the
expenditure of behavioral energy on an investment
value system built via evolution and learning.
It unifies Skinner’s radical behaviorism with cognitive
neuroscience and places it on a solid evolutionary
foundation
BIT Organizes the Aspects of Psychological Science
Most Associated With the Natural Sciences.

However, BIT does not provide a full account of human behavior…

Peggy La Cerra Offered an Identical
Model in 2003

“Evolutionary processes have crafted intelligence systems

that are fundamentally designed to acquire, manage, and
direct energetic resources toward the maintenance of life
processes and the attainment of life-stage specific goals.”
“Scientific psychology is on the cusp of a seismic shift into
this energy framework, and in the foreseeable future, the
social sciences will be rectified with the physical laws of
energy. It is only a matter of time before student of human
nature consensually agree that the first law of psychology is
the second law of thermodynamics.”
 The Two Broad Bio-Behavioral
Systems
Behavioral Activation System
 Orients toward approach
goals
 Expend energy to acquire
resource
 Focus on “benefit” side of
behavioral equation
 Left Prefrontal
 Extraversion
 Positive affect
Behavioral Inhibition
 Orients toward avoidance
goals
 Conserve acquired
resource
 Focus on cost/loss/threat
 Right Prefrontal
 Neuroticism
 Negative affect
A Useful Heuristic that Emerges Out
of BIT:
P-M=E
P= perception of where you currently are in
relation to achieving some need/goal
M= motivation/memory, an internal
representation of some goal structure based on
genetics and prior learning
E= emotion, which stems from the discrepancy
between where one is and where one desires to
be in relation to a particular need/goal.
Applying the Principles of BIT and the P – M = E
equation to social behavior gives rise to the…

The Influence Matrix

An Integrated Model of
Social Motivation and Affect
The first basic assumption of the IM is that social influence is a
resource all humans are motivated to acquire.
 The Second Assumption

The second basic assumption is that there

are three conceptually distinct dimensions
underlying social influence. Specifically,
they are: 1) power (competitive influence);
2) love (cooperative influence); and 3)
freedom (freedom from influence).
 The Third Assumption

The third assumption of the IM is that a

person’s emotions provide feedback to
them as they either succeed or fail in
relationship to achieving the goals.
 The Fourth Assumption

The three dimensions of power, love and

freedom are dynamically interrelated in that
changes in one dimension lead to changes in
another.
Consider the old political adage, “It is better to
be feared than loved.”
 The Fifth Assumption
 The reasons we give for our behavior are
guided in part by the underlying motivational
tendencies toward maximizing social
influence.
 Indeed, the connection between human
reasoning, language and social motivation is
more clearly specified in the final piece of the
puzzle…the Justification Hypothesis
The Justification
Hypothesis
A New Theory of Human Self-
Consciousness and the Evolution of
Culture
The Justification Hypothesis Is the
Mind-to-culture Joint Point
 What Is the Justification
Hypothesis?

 The JH is the notion that humans have an

elaborate self-awareness system because the
evolution of language created the problem
of justification. In brief, humans became the
only animal that had to explain why it did
what it did.
 The Three Claims That
Organize the JH
1. Freud’s fundamental observation was that the
human consciousness system functions as a
justification filter for behavioral investments.
2. This justification filter evolved because
language creates the “problem of justification.”
3. The Justification Hypothesis provides the
psychological foundation for a unified theory of
culture and links the individual level of analysis
(human psychology) with the social level
(macro social sciences) using the same
language of justification systems.
 Justification Systems
1) Justifications are the reasons we use to validate our
actions. (For example, a parent might justify why
she sets the rules by saying: “It is my house, I pay
the bills, I tell you what to do—not the reverse.”)
2) Each individual has their own worldview, their own
system of justification.
3) Differences in justification systems become
apparent in times of conflict.
4) Large scale justification systems organize society
 Together, Behavioral
Investment Theory and the
Justification Hypothesis
Suggest a Two Domain
Model of the Human Mind
(a point made by many
theorists)
 Justifying
Mind
Filtering

Experiencing
Mind

OVERT BEHAVIOR
 The Justification Hypothesis Suggests
Two Domains of Justification

 Explaining ourselves to ourselves

 Within the context of self-awareness (private)
 The “Freudian Filter”

 Explaining ourselves to others

 Within the social context (public)
 The “Rogerian Filter”
 Large Scale
Justification Systems

Private Self Public Self Public Self Private Self

Exper Self
Exper Self

Overt Behavioral
Investments
 In Sum…
 We must do a better job organizing our field
 The Four Major Pieces of The ToK System—
The Diagram, Behavioral Investment Theory,
The Influence Matrix, and the Justification
Hypothesis offer a new metatheoretical
perspective on the field which can help us
move more from racing horse to…
Seeing the Elephant!